Starring Bing Crosby, Gloria Jean, Charles Winninger, and El Brendel
Directed by David Butler
Music and Lyrics by various
With many people changing careers or looking for different forms of work, it makes sense to celebrate Labor Day this year with a musical about a construction worker who finds equal happiness constructing a life for a little girl. Crosby convinced Paramount to let him make a movie a year outside of his contract as an independent producer. This is his second and last independent film released by Universal.
It also features Gloria Jean, one of several child sopranos Universal showcased after their wild success with Deanna Durbin's vehicles. Swedish comedian El Brendel moved to Universal as a freelancer after his popularity with 20th Century Fox petered out. Let's start with Buzz Blackwell (Crosby) narrating a film showing himself and his buddies Axel Swenson (Brendel) and Fred Johnson (Donald Woods) clowning while building the Golden Gate Bridge and find out how well all this works together...
The Story: Tragically, Fred dies in an accident shortly before the Bridge is completed. Buzz and Axel take his daughter Patricia (Jean) cross-country to live with her Uncle Jarvis (Allyn Joslyn) in New York. Turns out Jarvis and his wife Brenda (Claire Dodd) are spoiled rich socialites with no interest in raising a child. They send the trio to his uncle Joe (Winninger) and his wife Marian (Nana Bryant). They're more than happy to have her, but they're ex-vaudevillians with no money. Buzz wants to give them the money Fred left for Pat, but Axel gets drunk and ends up buying his old friend's Swedish restaurant instead.
The restaurant isn't a success, until Buzz comes up with the idea of turning it into a nightclub and highlighting former vaudeville performers like Joe and Marian. He sells an eager Jarvis shares of a gold mining venture. Turns out the shares are a fraud...but the nightclub is already up and running. Axel and Patricia do what they can to keep Jarvis at bay and let the show go on!
The Song and Dance: I'm surprised at how sweet and charming this is. This is the second Crosby film I've seen where he doesn't get the girl, or even have a traditional love interest. The focus is on his relationship with Pat. Jean is adorable and very funny as the sensible tomboy who badly wants to stay with the people she loves, and Crosby works well with her. And while the nightclub acts in the end do come off as filler, they're also genuine stage history. We get to hear vaudeville headliner Blanche Ring and real-life minstrel performer Eddie Leonard do the songs they made famous, and catch glimpses of two other vaudeville favorites who seldom appeared in sound films, Trixie Frigenza and Julian Eltinge, as well.
Favorite Number: Buzz and Pat sing the comic ditty "Meet the Sun Half-Way" twice, once in the beginning of the film at a party celebrating the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge, and again in the end at the nightclub. The two and Axel claim "I Haven't Got Time to Be a Millionaire" when they come to Jarvis' palatial penthouse in New York and wonder how he made his fortune. Buzz and the Johnsons describe "The Pessimistic Character," a sourpuss who hates everyone, while eating dinner at the Swedish restaurant. Buzz gently performs the standard title ballad to Pat after she worries about him leaving. Blanche Ring revives her old "Rings On My Fingers" routine with Six Hits and a Miss at the nightclub, who also join Bing for "April Played the Fiddle."
What I Don't Like: The story is sweet but cliched. If you've ever seen Shirley Temple's vehicles or Bing's other movies from this time, you have an idea of what to expect. The sequences with the vaudeville performers in the end may be history, but they also likely exist to pad out the wafer-thin second half. There's also Eddie Leonard doing his number in blackface. It's part of the minstrel tradition, but more people will likely be offended nowadays than nostalgic. El Brendel's Swedish hayseed jokes still had their fans in 1940, but nowadays, they tend to come off as annoying, dated, and overdone.
The Big Finale: One of the hidden gems in Bing's filmography, this is worth seeing for some good songs and his chemistry with Gloria Jean alone.
Home Media: Only on DVD as a solo Universal Vault title and as part of a Bing Crosby collection.
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